Ilkley’s favourite son, Alan Titchmarsh, may return to his hometown during his retirement years.

Speaking during an exclusive interview with the Ilkley Gazette this week, the gardening guru laughed when asked if he would ever consider returning to the town he loved so much.

He said: "I don’t really feel I have left. I am an Ilkley man and will be until I die. I know the town so well. The first 20 years of your life are so much more intense and raw than anything that comes afterwards. Ilkley is a part of me and I can go there in my mind whenever I want to and I do so often."

Titchmarsh, who turned 60 earlier this year, was the launch speaker at Ilkley Literature Festival on Monday.

The event at the Kings Hall was a sell-out success as hundreds of fans, eager to hear of his latest memoirs, the Knave of Spades, queued to see him.

Alan said: "I am hoping to see some familiar faces in the crowds. My Auntie Edie still lives in Ilkley and it would be nice to see her and I still have some good friends from my school days like Janet Neil and Mary Ambler who I saw as I walked through the door.

"I am expecting all sorts of questions from people – the usual is what was it like meeting Nelson Mandela. My answer to that was that it was amazing!"

The son of plumber Alan (who was also a part-time fireman in the town) and Bessie Titchmarsh, Alan spent the first year of his life living with his paternal grandmother in a tiny two-up two-down in Dean Street.

His parents later bought their own house for £800 at number 34 Nelson Road in the town.

Following his speech at the Kings Hall, Alan was due to stay at the Craiglands before returning for the first time to his former Nelson Street home as part of a documentary with BBC1’s The One Show.

He said: "I am really looking forward to it. It will be a real trip down memory lane."

The house at number 34 had a small back garden and it was there that Alan first experimented with gardening when he built a little greenhouse at the tender age of ten.

He said: "I have never been back there since I left about 40 years ago so it will be a bit strange. I would guess that the windows have all been changed since I left and I very much doubt that my greenhouse will still be there!

"I will love to find out if my dad’s toilet is still where it used to be and if my little attic window is still there. I am looking forward to it but I bet it will all seem a lot smaller than I remember it to be."

Alan said he learnt his craft working alongside his grandfather at a local allotment near the river in Ilkley.

He left school at the age of 15 and went to work as an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council in 1964. He then studied at Shipley Art and Technology Institute for a City and Guilds in horticulture.

He eventually started working at Kew Gardens in London but left in 1974 for a career in gardening journalism. Since then he has been a popular face on television from Nationwide, to Gardener’s World and Ground Force where he travelled as far as South Africa to do a makeover of Nelson Mandela’s garden.

During his television and radio career, Alan has also written several books including his recent memoir which talks about his journey from an Ilkley lad to a famous television presenter.

Asked whether he preferred gardening to broadcasting or writing he said: "It would be like choosing your favourite child. I would say that gardening definitely comes easier."

Alan paid tribute to his childhood in Ilkley. When asked to list his five favourite places in the town, he said: "It’s difficult to keep it down to five.

"I suppose I would say the Cow and Calf, the swing bridge leading across to Middleton Woods, Mortens, Betty’s, the Kings Hall and the Playhouse."

In fact he loves Betty’s so much that he was once quoted as saying: "You haven’t lived unless you have had a fat rascal from Bettys."

However, on arriving in Ilkley yesterday he chose some of Betty’s fruitcake and Wensleydale to perk him up before the show.

He said: "My favourite memories of the town would be appearing on stage at the Kings Hall, singing in the Operatic Society, going to Sunday School and singing in the church choir at All Saints. Also just growing up in Nelson Road, taking the dogs up on the moor. There were many people who believed in me like David Wildman (artistic director of Ilkley Players) and Harry Rhodes (Alan’s teacher at Ilkley Church of England Junior Schoo) – both of whom had a generosity of spirit and saw something in me that perhaps I didn’t yet see. I never thought I’d end up in television. I used to joke about wanting to be Percy Thrower when I grew up, but it was never anything more than a ridiculous childhood fantasy. It is wonderful that it actually happened."

After spending a night at the Craiglands, where he pledged to inspect the toilets (his dad did the original plumbing at the hotel), Alan promised to pick up a cherished copy of the Gazette.

Asked whether he had yet seen last week’s paper, he laughed.

"My mum used to send it to me every week, wrapped up in paper. I have very fond memories of stories about what was happening in the town. I will definitely be buying one now!"

The remainder of the Literature Festival starts on Friday, October 2, and runs until Sunday, October 18.